Biodiversity: Safeguarding Endangered Food Products at a Slow Chef Festival in Poland

In June 2021, the Slow Food network organized five live-cooking events led by renowned local chefs in Krakow’s Targ Pietruszkowy Slow Food Earth Market. During the course of the festival, the chefs prepared 350 dishes made with local and Ark of Taste products at risk of extinction. 

The Targ Pietruszkowy festival was as much a success for the organizers as for the participants: of the 2,500 attendees, 70% voiced willingness to change their consumption patterns having participated in the festival. 

By bringing together farmers, food producers, chefs and market sellers, the Slow Food Chef Festival sowed the seeds for the flourishing of local biodiversity. The chefs secured new partners from whom to source their restaurants’ produce, and the Slow Food Earth market attracted new and engaged customers. The Slow Food Chef Festival also strengthened the international network by introducing chefs to the German Slow Food Cooks Alliance.